This is an ALL­CALL to the Soulforce family for Orlando.
We refuse to let them desecrate the graves of our fallen.
Soulforcers like myself will be there in Orlando in February to challenge the power
of this communications hub to harm our bodies and spirits with their death‐
dealing rhetoric.
We will be holding vigil for the entire 86 hours of the NRB
conference, and we need your help!
Will you join us?
Come to Orlando in February and help hold vigil for the lives and spirits of
our peopleSend a dove with your message of resistance for OrlandoSign on to our demands for the National Religious Broadcasters
Join us at Creating Change in Philadelphia next month to help build the
Living Altar that will travel to Orlando
Give to this action‐ $86 for the 86 hours we hold vigil will go to feed
volunteers on the ground
Visit our webpage to learn more and sign up for action alerts!
In deep resistance with you today and every day,
Yaz Nuñez
Director of Programs, Soulforce
P.S.: Interested in volunteering in Orlando during the action in February? We want
you. Click "reply" and let me know so I can follow up with you!

President-elect Donald Trump said he does not believe the CIA’s conclusion that Russia intervened in the election to help him win, attributing the assessment to Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton and claiming repeatedly that the U.S. intelligence community has “no idea” what might have happened.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Trump said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” his first Sunday show appearance since the election last month. “I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it . . . No, I don’t believe it at all.”

Trump also denied the importance of receiving the daily intelligence briefing, a tradition for presidents and presidents-elect. He has received the briefings only sporadically since winning the election.

“I get it when I need it,” he said. “I’m, like, a smart person. I don’t have to be told the same thing in the same words every single day for the next eight years.”

Trump’s comments go against the conclusion of the CIA that individuals with connections to the Russian government provided the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others to boost his chances.

“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators told The Washingon Post on Friday. “That’s the consensus view.”

Trump openly mocked the report on Friday evening, suggesting that the CIA had discredited itself by producing faulty assessments about Iraq’s weapons stockpile during the George W. Bush administration. “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” he said in a statement.

The latest comments appear destined to exacerbate tensions between Trump and the intelligence community, which is already wondering how it will function under his administration given the president-elect’s skepticism of the agency’s expertise and his disinterest in receiving daily briefings.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus voiced support for Trump’s view in an interview on ABC’s This Week.

“The Russians didn’t tell Hillary Clinton to ignore Wisconsin and Michigan,” Priebus told host George Stephanopoulos. “She lost because her ideas were bad. Donald Trump won in an electoral landslide that had nothing to do with the Russians.”

On Sunday morning, Republican Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) joined Democratic Leader-elect Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) in calling for a thorough investigation of the cyberattacks.

“Recent reports of Russian interference in our election should alarm every American,” the group said. “Democrats and Republicans must work together, and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress, to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyber-attacks.”

Absent from the statement were members of the chamber’s Republican leadership. McCain is chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Graham is a member; Reed is the panel’s top Democrat.

Other Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have expressed doubts about the CIA’s conclusion that the Russian hacks were designed to boost Trump. On Saturday, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn wondered why the issue was being discussed at all.

“All this ‘news’ of Russian hacking: it has been going on for years,” he tweeted. “Serious, but hardly news.”

Trump declined to confirm whom he will name secretary of state but lavished praise on his expected pick, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, calling him a “world-class player” and even alluding to Tillerson’s ties to Russia, which are a source of concern for hawkish Republicans on Capitol Hill.

“He’s in charge of an oil company that’s pretty much double the size of his next serious competitor,” Trump said of Tillerson. “It’s been a company that’s been unbelievably managed. And to me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players, and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company.”

Secretary of state is the most powerful cabinet position that remains unfilled by Trump about a month after the election. For weeks, Trump has interviewed candidates, including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R), and deliberated about the decision

Priebus told Stephanopoulos that he didn’t have misgivings about Tillerson’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Daily 202 newsletter

A must-read morning briefing for decision-makers.

“The fact that he has a relationship with Vladimir Putin is not something that we should be embarrassed by,” Priebus said. “We have big problems in this world and I don’t think we can solve these problems by making believe that people don’t exist.”

Trump suggested in the “Fox News Sunday” appearance that he will retain a stake in his business as president, a possibility that has raised questions among ethics experts, and he questioned the idea that making deals for his company from the White House would represent a conflict of interest.

“When I ran, everybody knew that I was a very big owner of real estate all over the world,” Trump said, adding that he would not be involved in the day-to-day management of his company as president. “I’m not going to be doing deals at all. Now that would be — I don’t even know if that’s a conflict. I mean, I have the right to do it. You know, under the law, I have the right to do it. I just don’t want to do it.”

Trump is scheduled to give a news conference on Thursday to discuss how he will pass the reins of the Trump Organization to his three eldest children. “They’re not making deals, either, for my company,” he said.

For the thousands hoping to echo the civil rights and anti-Vietnam rallies at Lincoln Memorial by joining the women’s march on Washington the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration: time to readjust your expectations.

The Women’s March won’t be held at the Lincoln Memorial.

That’s because the National Park Service, on behalf of the Presidential Inauguration Committee, filed documents securing large swaths of the national mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities. None of these spots will be open for protesters.

The NPS filed a “massive omnibus blocking permit” for many of Washington DC’s most famous political locations for days and weeks before and after the inauguration on 20 January, said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a constitutional rights litigator and the executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund.

Previously, Verheyden-Hilliard has led court battles for protest access on inauguration day itself.

But banning access to public land for protesters days after the inauguration is “extremely unique”, she said in a press conference held by the Answer [Act Now to Stop War and End Racism] Coalition.

“It hasn’t come up in any way previously, where you’ve had a groundswell of people trying to have access on the Saturday, January 21, and thousands of people want to come, and the government is saying we won’t give you a permit,” she said.

“What they’ve done is take all of these spaces out of action,” she said, many of which, the Answer Coalition noted in its press release, are “historic spaces for dissent”.

It’s partly a practical issue. Inauguration bleachers and viewing stands started being erected on 1 November and it will take until 1 March to completely clear the major public spaces from all of the inauguration works, said Mike Litterst, spokesman for the NPS.

A recent poll found 70% of women had a negative view of the Republican, and the ranks of single women – who tend to vote Democratic – are growing

Read more

“They’re construction zones, effectively,” said Litterst.

But the plan greatly limits the options for public protesting.

Answer requested a permit to host a rally along Pennsylvania Avenue the day after the inauguration and was denied.

“We’ve issued the demand to the parks service because this is an illegal abridgment of first amendment rights ... We expect they’ll conform to the constitution and make permits available,” said Verheyden-Hilliard.

Shortly after the election, the women’s march on Washington started going viral on Facebook, with activists calling on women and allies to head to the city on 21 January and march on the Lincoln Memorial. Currently, 135,000 people have registered on the national Facebook page to say they are “going” and another 225,000 are “interested”.

The Facebook event page still has the Lincoln Memorial listed as the event’s address, but it won’t be held at the historic location.

“The Lincoln Memorial is not possible,” said Cassady Fendlay, spokeswoman for the women’s march on Washington. She said march organizers were not associated with the Answer Coalition, and have “had no issues with the permitting process at all”.

“We are in conversation with the police. We have secured another location,” said Fendlay, declining to name where the march would now take place but saying it would be nearby.

• This article was amended on 9 December 2016 to correct the spelling of Mike Litterst’s surname.

Dear President-elect Trump,My mother was shot and killed at Sandy Hook School four years ago, along with five of her colleagues and 20 first-graders. Since then, radio host Alex Jones has fanned the flames of a hateful conspiracy theory claiming that the shooting that took my mother's life never happened.I'm asking you to denounce it immediately and cut ties with Alex Jones and anyone who subscribes to these dangerous ideas.You’ve appeared on Jones' radio show, praised his "amazing" reputation, and promised him that you "won't let him down". Now he’s claiming you’ve personally called to thank him after the election, and will be on his show again soon. It's unacceptable.My life changed forever when I lost my mother, as do the lives of the families of the 91 Americans shot and killed and hundreds more injured every single day. You've promised to be a president for all of us. Well, that includes victims of gun violence and their families, like me. I hope that you will not only refuse to go on his show, but that you will denounce the conspiracy theories that he spreads at the expense of gun violence survivors.-- Erica Lafferty, daughter of Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, shot and killed at Sandy Hook School

A proposed new law would allow authorities to charge nonviolent protesters with “economic terrorism.” Click here to sign the petition to stop this!

A new law proposed by a State Senator in Washington would allow prosecutors to charge protesters with "economic terrorism," and slap them with serious felony charges that could lead to jail time, just for making their voices heard. [1]

The outrageous proposed bill would make any form of protest that causes an "economic disruption" a class C felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. It wouldn't just apply to people who engage in illegal acts or vandalism, it could be used to prosecute any person or group who organizes a protest that authorities deem as "disruptive." Broadly interpreted, this law could apply to honored American traditions of nonviolent dissent like boycotts and civil disobedience.

We don’t have to support every protest or every cause, but we cannot allow overly broad legislation to to undermine our Constitutionally protected freedoms.

Charging protesters with terrorism clearly violates the First Amendment and is an attempt to silence legitimate dissent. Please sign the petition telling lawmakers to reject this dangerous legislation.

We need everyone to speak out right now so we can shut down this terrible proposed legislation before it spreads to other states. This affects all of us. Will you sign the petition to stop it?

The future Donald Trump administration’s energy agenda is revealed in a memo prepared by Trump’s energy transition head Thomas Pyle, titled “What to Expect from the Trump Administration.” The document, obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), was sent by Pyle on November 15th, just days before the Trump campaign announced Pyle’s appointment as head of his Department of Energy transition team.

The memo outlines fourteen policies to be expected from President-elect Trump, which collectively amounts to a fossil fuel industry wish list and which would be devastating for attempts to slow climate change.

The agenda includes withdrawing from the 2015 Paris Climate agreement, eliminating the Clean Power Plan, increasing the leasing of federal lands for exploitation of coal, oil and gas, expediting the approval of pipeline projects including the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline and rolling back federal fuel economy standards.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is in deep trouble. President-elect Trump has promised to cancel the agreement and stop spending taxpayer dollars on wasteful U.N. climate programs. Even if the Trump administration does nothing, this means there will be massive defections from the agreement. Any prior commitments to emissions reductions or taxpayer funding for the Green Climate Fund should be seen as null at this point.

Increasing federal oil and natural gas leasing. Less than 3 percent of federal offshore areas are currently leased for energy development. In particular, this will increase in the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea and the mid and south Atlantic. Onshore, there will be more leasing, especially in places like the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and on federal lands in the west.

Lifting the coal lease moratorium. The Obama administration’s coal leasing moratorium on federal lands—a part of their “keep it in the ground” strategy—will likely be terminated and royalty rates will likely be kept at current levels.

Giving the states greater say on energy leases on federal lands within their borders. Here’s what the Trump campaign wrote in response to the American Energy Alliance’s Presidential candidate questionnaire:

“The federal government does have stewardship of millions of acres of land. Rather than selling the land to states and private enterprises, the first step should be establishing a shared governance structure with the states. This first step would allow for maintaining the aesthetics of the land while finding ways to gain revenue that would benefit both the federal and state governments.”

Expediting approvals of LNG export terminals. The Obama administration has slow-walked the review of LNG export terminals. Under the Trump administration, approvals will be expedited.

Hitting reset on the Clean Power Plan. This regulatory rule is currently before the D.C. Circuit Court. Even if the regulation is upheld, the Trump administration will issue a new regulation withdrawing the Clean Power Plan. Also, the seldom-talked about regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants will also be withdrawn.

Reconsidering the “endangerment finding.” In response to Massachusetts v. EPA, the Obama administration found that greenhouse gas emissions harmed human health and welfare. This is the regulatory predicate to the Obama administration’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mandates and Clean Power Plan and greatly expanded EPA’s power. This finding will be reconsidered and possibly revoked, marking a major blow to underpinning for many climate regulations.

Moving forward with pipeline infrastructure. The Obama administration slow-walked the Keystone XL pipeline, making it a political issue, and has done the same with the Dakota Access Pipeline(DAPL). The Trump administration will likely work to streamline and expedite pipeline permitting.

Taking a closer look at the environmental impacts of wind energy. Trump has been concerned about the harms to wildlife from wind turbines such as bird and bat deaths. Unlike before, wind energy will rightfully face increasing scrutiny from the federal government.

Reducing energy subsidies. Here’s what the Trump campaign wrote in response to the Presidential candidate questionnaire from the American Energy Alliance:

“This is an issue for Congress and the people they represent. Subsidies distort markets and should be used only when national security is at stake. Eventually, all subsidies should end so that the demand for energy will set prices, allow consumers access to the best values and encourage all facets of the energy industry to do all they can to keep their particular source competitive.”

Amending the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Trump has expressed support of the RFS as a way to increase domestic energy production. The RFS will be amended to reduce EPA’s discretionary authority to set the biofuel levels, especially after 2022.

Hitting reset on the Obama administration’s unconstitutional definition of “Waters of the United States”. This rule is currently in the courts. The Trump administration could revise the regulation to work cooperatively with the states. An expansive definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act tramples on the prerogatives of the states to regulate water.

Relaxing the federal fuel economy standards. Under the Obama administration’s CAFE standards, light-duty vehicles must achieve 54.5 mpg by 2025. This regulation will be significantly relaxed. It will either be completely withdrawn or revised and phased out to be closer to the current levels of fuel economy.

Ending the use of the social cost of carbon in federal rulemakings. The Obama administration aggressively used the social cost of carbon (SCC) to help justify their regulations. During the Trump Administration the SCC will likely be reviewed and the latest science brought to bear. If the SCC were subjected to the latest science, it would certainly be much lower than what the Obama administration has been using.